Aspiration in terms of the yogic process is a tuning of the consciousness towards the spiritual reality, and thereby shifting the focus away from the ego-personality to the divine. The aspiration directs the attention, but must be followed up with an attitude of receptivity so that the response, ... Views: 590
In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo concisely outlines the processes and steps of the integral yoga. The progress is based on a two-fold collaboration between the individual Soul and the divine Force, brought about through a tuning process for the human individual through what is called ... Views: 611
Some people interpret the need to eliminate desire as becoming essentially cold and unmoved by anything. They even treat desire for the Divine realisation as something to eventually be eliminated. The subtlety and narrowness of the path makes it easy to stray in one direction or the other, and ... Views: 676
There are those who treat astrology as a science, those who believe that our fate is determined by the “stars” and also those who believe that astrology is a pseudo-science with no real basis in anything that can meaningfully either control our destiny or even signify events in our lives. How ... Views: 279
Seekers wonder how they can be sure that the true shift of consciousness to the divine standpoint, or even a soul-centric standpoint has occurred. The status is so ‘real’ that it permits no doubt whatsoever. When one combines this sense of reality with the way in which one reacts totally ... Views: 397
As the mental being develops and we begin to experience the sense of separation from the other beings who are part of the creation, we also begin to have a sense that we have “free will” and make our own independent choices. To a great degree, this sense is misplaced, insofar as our current ... Views: 283
As the spiritual seeker begins to address the question of mastery over the sex-impulse, he becomes aware of the difficulties of tackling a deeply embedded process that stretches back into the early phases of animal evolution, and thus, has acquired a strong power base within the being. This ... Views: 7
A central key to attaining peace lies in achieving the poise of non-attachment. Non-attachment is sometimes confused with avoidance of action, or some kind of renunciation. But non-attachment can develop even among those who are active in the world. King Janaka was known as being non-attached ... Views: 446
The ‘law of attraction’ has been seen as something of a ‘wish-fulfilling gem’, where we can think about something and focus on it, and thereby draw it to us. The reality of the law of attraction is not so dramatic as to cause riches, fame and other desired results to manifest for us somewhat ... Views: 266
We see a proliferation of people who claim to act as intermediaries through a process of seance, or use of a Ouija board or planchette, to communicate with individuals who have passed away. The interest in this area goes through periods of peaks and troughs, but continually captures the popular ... Views: 244
The mind creates a number of illusions and misconceptions about Avatars and Vibhutis. Many of these ideas assume, wrongly, that a conscious manifestation of the Divine in the world must be likewise all-knowing and all-powerful, and they thus attribute miraculous powers and actions to those who ... Views: 521
When the protective walls of the surface being give way as the seeker enters the inner planes, access to the vital planes may occur, with all of the beings, powers and forces at work there having suddenly direct interchange with the seeker. Sometimes these forces are intimidating, sometimes, ... Views: 682
When a seeker begins to explore the inner realms and undertakes what Sri Aurobindo describes in his epic poem, Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, as an ‘adventure of consciousness and joy’, he is confronted with numerous unfamiliar circumstances, powers, forces, and pressures that are not all ... Views: 191
The inconscient level is a substratum for the broader manifestation and is not tied to any particular individual. Before anything can be done to effectively wake up and energize the inconscient, the task of the spiritual seeker is to bring down the light and consciousness through all the higher ... Views: 327
If we run a small current through a wire to a light bulb, but below the capacity of the bulb, it will light up, although it may flicker. If we increase the current the light bulb brightens and the illumination becomes constant. If we put too much current through the bulb, we may start a fire or ... Views: 167
Traditional paths of yoga describe the various chakras, or subtle energy centers, that act as collecting and disseminating points for various specific vibrational patterns related to the action of that specific chakra. Certain paths, such as various Tantric disciplines as well as the well-known ... Views: 248
When a spiritual seeker begins to appreciate the forces at work in the world that try to influence and manipulate his behaviour, one of the first reactions tends to be to try to close oneself off, wall oneself off, not take cognizance of these forces. This is the power of the anchorite ... Views: 39
It is a human trait. We tend to oscillate between extremes. Too much, or too little, seems to be our method of living. Wise men, sages and Rishis throughout the ages have counseled ‘moderation in all things’, the ‘middle way’, the way of ‘balance’. These tenets for living are also helpful in our ... Views: 69
When we hear that we must cultivate detachment and indifference to the physical body as the instrument of our external interactions in the world, we tend to immediately jump to the idea that we must renounce everything and simply let the body do whatever happens without any care or concern for ... Views: 80
There is a tendency among human beings to react with extremes. Something is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘black’ or ‘white’, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This occurs due to the linear nature of the mental consciousness aided by a vital nature that wants to assert itself by being ‘right’.
For the ... Views: 119
As one begins the actual practice of yoga, one becomes aware of the various forms of difficulties in gaining the cooperation of and control over the various parts of our internal being. The mind races when we try to sit for meditation. We become aware of desires and compulsions that formerly ... Views: 51
The mental consciousness evolved subsequent to the emergence of the physical consciousness and the vital consciousness. It appears in rudimentary forms in various animals, and advances to a much higher state of activity and power in the higher primates, including human beings, as well as ... Views: 129
The life force brings mobility and increased responsiveness compared to the physical being. It operates primarily under the impulsion of attraction and repulsion. The predominant quality or Guna is Rajas, which brings energy, action, and progress, while at the same time, its deformations can ... Views: 135
Our consciousness tends to be so fluid and so mixed that it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to distinguish what represents our own internal process and what is coming to us from outside, from our interaction with others, from environmental influences. None of these things remains ... Views: 263
What is consciousness? How can we understand consciousness separate from what we believe to be ourselves, the body, vital force and mental framework that we identify with? Philosophers, scientists and religious leaders have all tried to develop a definition of “consciousness”. Rene Descartes ... Views: 487
Enormous forces are at work in the universe. Vast numbers of stars and their planetary groupings move at high speed. Radiation of various sorts streams throughout the universe. There is a cosmic background radiation that scientists can now measure as they develop ever-finer instrumentation to ... Views: 263
It is difficult for an individual to see his own shortcomings or faults. Many times we see them reflected in others and we externalise them to such a degree that we take exception to the other person, not recognising that we are seeing our own faults displayed in front of us. If we have a ... Views: 119
The decisive spiritual experiences an individual has stay with him throughout his life. Those who are anchored in their external lives undergo countless experiences but these tend to fade, become jumbled or simply blend into one another. Who can, after all, remember what they ate for breakfast ... Views: 430
When we see someone struggling, or when we ourselves are struggling, with some feeling, emotion, thought, idea, force of illness, or just feeling some pressure, we usually associate these with our internal experience of reality, but nevertheless, the fact that forces and influences come from ... Views: 503
Many people are begin to reflect, and even entertain the notion, that the world we experience on a day to day basis is somehow unreal or illusory. Films such as the dystopian story set forth in The Matrix envision that human beings are fettered and their brains wired so they experience a form of ... Views: 371
For most people, their lives are focused on their external relationships, their own individual self-satisfaction and their ability to manipulate their social and environmental reality to achieve objectives set by their ego-personality. Many do not have any meaningful relationship to any inner ... Views: 568
For the most part, we react to things without considering the source of the impression that sparks the reaction, the process of the reaction or the manner in which the impression is converted into a response. These things simply “happen” and we tend to accept them as ‘human nature’ or, in some ... Views: 581
When the idea of becoming conscious in sleep is raised, many people try simply to find ways to remain awake somehow in sleep. This process generally leads to exhaustion, and imbalances in the physical, vital and mental complex of the outer nature. Sleep is restorative to their processes, and any ... Views: 549
A devotee residing at Sri Aurobindo Ashram some years ago tried an experiment which he reported. For a specific time period he determined not to speak. He did not do this in an indiscriminate way, however. He implemented this experiment by avoiding all social speech whatsoever, but agreed to ... Views: 225
In the Taittiriya Upanishad, the seeker discovers, through intensive tapasya that there are multiple layers, or sheaths, of consciousness that make up the human being. His seeking first discovers the material body, or ‘food sheath’. As he continues he recognises the vital body, or ‘prana ... Views: 377
There are many different spiritual disciplines and methods, and also different experiences of consciousness that result from practice of these methods. For those who aspire to bring the soul, the psychic being, forward and active in the physical body and life, Sri Aurobindo describes several ... Views: 497
If we shift to the standpoint of the observer of the mind, we will notice that as conditions vary, the ‘mind-stuff’ (citta) takes on different characteristics based on our state of reactivity and interaction with perceptions, feelings, events or external circumstances. We may consider an image ... Views: 498
We seek for love, we look for it in our relationships, we search for it in a ‘soul mate’, but in the end, we can recognise that human love is limited and uncertain. There are examples of love that spans a lifetime, possibly multiple lifetimes, and there are countless tales of idealised love that ... Views: 548
The human mind is always at work, trying to figure out what life is all about, where we came from, why we are here, what we are to do, what lies in the future. We have developed a countless number of ideas, philosophies, religious concepts, and we become adherents to those that make sense to our ... Views: 61
People are not generally consciously aware of the energy interchanges that take place to fuel their bodies and drive their live energies. They understand that they need to eat food as a form of ‘fuel’ for their energy, and they count ‘calories’ that are produced by various food sources. Clearly, ... Views: 271
We are frequently not aware of the state of boredom and its various manifestations within us. We do recognise periods when we feel at a loss and want to do or experience something or distract our minds and we recognise these times as boredom. What we do not necessarily recognise however are the ... Views: 376
For Sri Aurobindo, truth of the spirit is to be lived, not attained by abandonment of life in the world. He looks at the evolution of body, life and mind as steps along the evolutionary process, and each one of them represents an important stage in an ongoing development. The action of these ... Views: 470
When the seeker recognises the difficulties attendant upon gaining control and mastery of the subconscient, he looks for leverage to both become conscious of what is currently subconscious to his awareness, and to find ways to change the response and reactions that arise from the ... Views: 331
Most people get ‘wound up’ occasionally or frequently. This leads to what is called in Ayurveda ‘deranged vata’. Vata is the dosha that represents the air element in the being. The symptoms can include nervous tics, headaches, indigestion, insomnia, and a general feeling of lack of ease or ... Views: 493
In today’s world we are confronted by politicians and business leaders who act aggressively, beat their chests, berate others, bully and otherwise exhibit behavior that proclaims “might is right” and therefore, due to their financial power or physical strength, they have the right to control ... Views: 475
However difficult it is to predict specifically the destiny of any individual, due to the complex interactions that create that destiny (or shall we say ‘destinies’), there is still a sense that life carries out the path of the energies at work, as well as the trajectory those energies follow. ... Views: 329
We try, as human individuals, to make changes in our lives. Self-help information proliferates, and people try numerous methods to change various habits, cravings and directions in their lives. We have a proverb that it is harder to change human nature than to straighten out a dog’s tail, which ... Views: 749
The human mind tries to find patterns and meaning in things. We see random cloud shapes and we want to understand a ‘message’. We look into the night sky and create shapes out of stars which are enormous distances separated from one another by seeing a particular form or image in the pattern ... Views: 176
Every aspect of life, and every plane of existence vibrates at its own unique frequency. As an individual develops, he can begin to resonate with and respond to the vibrations of various levels of existence. This also gives him the ability to feel and recognise the similar vibration when it is ... Views: 291
An accident avoided. An individual related the following incident. He was driving with a passenger through Yellowstone National Park in the USA some years ago during the summer season in a van late in the afternoon. He had a sense or feeling of an impending accident involving a bison, although ... Views: 442